Celebrating Maritime Heritage

September 15, 2009

In a first for book publisher Thames & Hudson, this children's poem written by Ted Hughes is being published next week after being lost for over fifty years.

Jim Downer (pictured below) who shared a house in London with the late poet wrote and illustrated the story of Timmy the Tug in the mid-1950's. He created the book to impress his future wife that he would not only be a suitable husband, but a good father too. He showed it to Ted Hughes who offer to provide his own version of the story. Although Downer agreed, it was the last time he saw the book as both he and Hughes found themselves going off in seperate directions.

It wasn't until last year that Carol Hughes found the book among her husband's archives and returned it to Downer that he discovered Ted Hughes had written his verses.

The book tells the story of how Timmy escaped from his moorings to embark upon some exciting adventures on the high seas and is being published as an exact facsimile of the original book!

Online Competition:Thames & Hudson are kindly giving away three copies of the book as competition prizes. To enter, answer the following question - 'What was the name of Ted Hughes first wife?' Email your answer to: tallship@wildpublishing.com along with your name, full postal address and contact telephone number. Closing date: 30th September 2009. Winners will be notified by email or telephone. Editor's decision is final.

Picture of Jim Downer is acknowledged from an interview with Downer that appeared in The Times

August 20, 2009

Maritime artist Peter Leath has lived on the Isle of Wight all his life. He and the small seaside town in the south of England are inextricably linked and the picturesque scenery has worked its way into many of his paintings. When his peers left the Isle to go to University or explore the world, Peter preferred to stay put. “I didn’t want to leave home because it meant leaving the Isle of Wight and I was very happy there and still am. I don’t think I could live anywhere else. You’ve got country, seaside, and a very quiet pleasant way of life.” The coastal location begged to be recreated on canvas and after finding his passion for painting in his mid thirties, Peter didn’t look back and went on to produce hundreds of works that have been lauded across the globe for their exceptional depiction of maritime scenes. Every one of the near-400 works produced has found proud owners and he is left with just three in his possession. Recently Peter suffered a stroke and sadly, has had to put down his brushes, as he is no longer able to paint. Despite this blow to his health, Peter says he keeps busy on the Isle and takes comfort in the enjoyment people have gained from his art.

Peter was born in Sandown in the Isle of Wight in 1935 where his passion for boats and the sea was obvious from a very young age. Despite not having come from a boating background – his family were not boaties as one might expect - Peter spent his younger days at the shore. He would fish for mackerel in a clinker-built dinghy, then cart his catch around to the local houses to sell door to door. He credits the location with igniting his passion for the sea, saying it naturally breeds people with a love of all things maritime. At one time more than 13,000 people on the Isle made their living from boating and this atmosphere buoyed Peter’s interest. As for painting, Peter was dabbling in art from a young age and even had a piece accepted by the Royal Academy entitled ‘Christmas Lunch’ at the age of 11. This early indication of his artistic talent kept Peter intrigued by the possibility of one day pursuing his passion. He still has ‘Christmas Lunch’ somewhere in his house, too.

After leaving school Peter embarked on a number of odd jobs in a quest to find his true calling, from brick-laying, to forestry and several years as a fisherman. His first job out of school was as an apprentice printer and he eventually went on to become a master printer before enlisting in the air force. He was deployed to Hong Kong where he learnt to speak Cantonese and worked as an interpreter for the police force. Peter has an ear for languages and managed to pick up the ‘street’ version of Cantonese. “Chinese is a very hard language because it’s all about tones. The police inspectors could all speak the language but they’d been trained in England and couldn’t be understood whereas I spoke a more guttural version of Chinese.” Peter is currently teaching himself to speak Arabic, saying it’s going to be the “language of the future”.

After four years abroad he returned home with a taste for the outdoors and packed in the printing job to take on a variety of jobs outside. One of these jobs was as a fisherman. Peter worked as a deckhand on a friend’s 30-foot trawler for several years. “We got along very well as we both called a spade a spade. Aside from that he was a very good fisherman and could catch fish when no one else could in all kinds of conditions.” Peter left this job to fish on his own after completing a 22-foot boat that took him six and a half years to build. He also built a 34-foot boat for a friend around this time. When asked to explain how he knew how to build himself a boat, Peter replies simply, “At ten years old I could tell you every rope and rigging on a four-rig ship. I built my first dinghy very young. That’s just the Isle of Wight – boating knowledge seems to bring more boating knowledge.”

The turning point for Peter came when his wife Sally called his bluff after growing tired of his complaints about the state of maritime art. “I was always grumbling at works of art I saw and saying how rubbish they were, especially marine pictures. Sally bet me I couldn’t do better and bought me a set of oils, canvases and brushes. She said ‘there’s the paints, paint me a picture’. The rest, as they say, is history. Peter produced a flurry of about 40 paintings in quick succession, “I just painted and painted and painted.” These were gathered into an exhibition at the public library in Ryde on the Isle of Wight in 1972 after the owners, the Jacobsons, suggested he display his new works. Much to his surprise, the paintings flew out the door with every single work sold in just six days. “It really amazed me and luckily most of the people who bought my work were in the marine industry. If those kinds of people liked what I’d done then I obviously had a place to carry on.” This confirmation of his talents was enough to catapult Peter’s artistic career skywards and he is now considered one of the world’s premier maritime artists.

Some of the feedback Peter received from the exhibition was that his depiction of the sea, sky and sailing ships was remarkably accurate. One ex-navy man who bought one of the biggest pieces, a three by four-foot painting told him, “That’s exactly what a real sea looks like”. He regaled Peter with tales of being torpedoed off the Russian coast during the war and how the rough and ominous seas in the painting transported him right back to those heady days of war. “He also told me he went back and re-joined the merchant navy and would you believe it he got torpedoed again. Most of all his comments meant a lot, because they said people who knew what they were talking about liked what I’d done.”In another twist of fate, Peter was approached by the Shipwrecked Mariners’ and Fishermen Royal Benevolent Society wanting to film the exhibition for South Today. The show was widely viewed and from this Peter was able to secure several commissions from all over the world, including Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

As well as the exposure on South Today, Peter was invited to create an artwork for the Society’s annual Christmas card. The rights to the art were bought by the society for £25 and the Christmas card went on to sell out all of the 250,000 copies produced. As a token of its appreciation, Peter was sent an additional £100. “I thought it was going to be a very good advertisement for me, which is why I sold them the rights, and it was. From that I got more commissions. They’re a very good society of which the Queen is a patron. One year I was presented to her at the fishmonger’s hall at London Bridge. That was quite an occasion for me.” Peter continued to produce the art for the cards up until the 1990s. In 1990 a record 700,000 cards were sold.

This “crash, bang, wallop” start to his career set the tone for the rest. After the success of his first exhibition Peter began to paint full time. Painting out of his studio at home, he produced hundreds of works depicting pre-steam fishing vessels, coasting crafts and harbour and commercial river scenes. These remarkably life-like creations took hours of research, for which Peter has a vast number of reference books. His collection of 39 Encyclopaedia Britannica was invaluable for the street maps of every town and harbour in England. These were used to recreate harbour scenes, and Peter added people by meticulously copying photographs of fisherman and yachties in boats. Sally was often required to dress up in oilskin and pose for Peter while he sketched her, a task she patiently agreed to! Another source of maritime inspiration came from the excellent books of another Isle of Wight resident Edgar J March. “He wrote a lot of books about trawlermen and fishermen of this country and the days of sail and oar,” remembers Peter.

If Peter Leath has a trademark, then it is his impressive, often ominous skies. Peter says he’s not sure why people say it’s his trademark. It may have something to do with the fact that every Peter Leath work has a breathtakingly realistic sky that hangs above an equally impressive sea. Peter’s trick is to use a different palette for the sea and sky so any colour that appears in the rough waves or calm ocean will not be used to paint the sky. “It seems to work,” says Peter, “and if it seems to work then that suits me.”

Many of Peter’s illustrations have appeared in books. His brother John, through his role as a book designer for Barry & Jenkins, procured Peter several illustration jobs for his firm. As well as this, a small profile appeared in Denys Brook Hart’s 20th Century British Marine Painting, of which Peter says, “When he wrote to me to ask if he could include me I thought ‘oh how nice that he’s heard of me’. I had a couple of paintings in black and white and a note about me in the back, not all that much, but quite enough for me in those days.” Peter featured alongside long-admired fellow artists Montague Dawson and W Wiley, a Portsmouth-based artist.

One artistic endeavour he came to regret was his involvement with a reproduction of a book called A View of the Isle of Wight by John Sturch, which was accompanied by 12 watercolour illustrations. The book featured Sturch’s three letters to a friend detailing his experience of the Isle of Wight that date back to the 1700s. “These so-called publishers approached me to see if I would paint 12 watercolours so they could reproduce the book as a limited edition,” says Peter. He was never paid for the pictures, nor were the book binders paid. The last update Peter got on the shady duo was that one ended up in prison and later died of a heart attack, and the other was found to be on-selling signed books that he bought cheaply off unsuspecting old people. Peter still has edition 27 of the 300 that were produced and signed by Peter himself.

Another colourful period of Peter’s life was the eight and a half years he spent teaching art at Pankhurst Prison. He took on this daunting task to supplement his income from painting at the start of his career. The inmates were mostly well behaved and Peter was surprised at how much they valued their lessons. “They were very good students. Of course they were dying for something to do. Some of them were 23 hours in a cell with nothing to do – not even a radio to listen to. Some of the students were very good - one went on to become a member of the Hibernian Art Society and exhibits with them every year.” Crass humour came with the territory, with one inmate cracking a joke about a man known to be killing and eating homeless people. Peter retells the joke: “He said, ‘oh did you hear we got Nielson? Did you know they put him in the kitchen? At least we’ll get a bit of meat in the soup now’. You’ve got to laugh don’t you?”

Recently Peter suffered a stroke and is no longer able to paint, a fact that is both devastating and frustrating for him and his many fans. The stroke he suffered in 2003 did not affect his movement or speech, but it has left his spatial awareness skewed and he finds it impossible to plan a picture in his head. “I’ve tried drawing and it’s just impossible. Before I’d get an idea in my head and I just had to put it on canvas and to me it was easy. But now I can’t even plan it in my head. It is quite devastating. I would have liked to have painted more.”

Nearly 20 years ago Peter’s wife Sally thought he’d gone mad when he decided to start building a 34-foot yacht at his home in Carisbrooke with plans to sail it around the world. He abandoned this pursuit when his funds became too tight, having sunk 2200 man-hours into the build. “Looking back I wasn’t well. I think I had two minor strokes while working on the boat and I later found out that I should have been wearing a gasmask while sanding because iroko wood is quite poisonous.”

He may not have achieved his lifelong dream of sailing around the world in his own boat, but he can be very proud of his many artistic achievements, including being honoured by the Senior Rates Mess of HM Victory with a medal and the book Sailing Ships of War by Dr. Frank Howard, as well as creating the extremely popular annual Christmas card for the Shipwrecked Mariners’ and Fishermen Royal Benevolent Society and raising thousands of pounds in the process. Most of all it’s the paintings that now hang on the walls of discerning buyers all over the world that speak volumes about the accomplishments of this prolific maritime artist

August 19, 2009

Once used for trawl fishing in the North Sea, S.V Estelle has since transformed from a clunky trawler with no mast into a seaworthy sailing ship thanks to a group of dedicated volunteers. A steel-hulled, 42-metre-long ship, she was originally built in 1922 in Emden, Germany and spent 15 years hauling gravel from Vuolahti to Helsinki before being converted into a fair trade vessel. She now has the illustrious task of promoting fair trade and global equality and is docked and operated out of Turku, Finland by a group of volunteers who sail to poverty-stricken parts of the globe delivering aid and bringing back fair trade items to sell. It is Finland’s largest sailboat and as such is participating in this year’s Tall Ships’ Races, partly to draw attention to their cause. Uniquely, she is one of the only ships classified as both a merchant vessel and a special-purpose or training vessel for her work as a cargo ship and for campaigning and educational work. A literal shipwreck when Eestas Oy bought her in 1985, her transformation into a seafaring sailing ship over the next ten years is all thanks to the volunteers who now operate the ship.

Estelle is currently maintained by volunteer group Uusi Tuuli (New Wind), who charter Estelle from Eestaas Oy (Back and Forth Limited). Uusi Tuuli was formed “to promote international solidarity, fair trade, peace and understanding between people and nations of the world”. Many of the ship’s 15 to 17-strong crew have been trained while sailing on the Baltic Sea. There is a diverse mix of unpaid crew on board, including Toni Panula, who is a film producer when on dry land and an AB seaman when on board, who says Estelle offers an interesting mix of maritime culture and chairty work. “Volunteer work gives you perspective on your own daily life in a world of greed and weird trends. It’s also concrete action as opposed to my creative work in the film industry,” says Panula. Another volunteer, Heidi Tyni, says Estelle is a great place to gain new experiences and achieve sailing goals. “For example many volunteers from Estelle go on to marine school,” she says, “or study to be a deckhand during Estelle trips. There is also the possibility to do all kinds of work that you wouldn’t have the chance to do in normal life. Travelling is also a plus, as is the international atmosphere - that's one of the greatest things.” Uusi Tuuli use Estelle to deliver aid and fair trade cargo and for educational and cultural tours. Uusi Tuuli also has a bicycle flee-market where volunteers repair bicycles that are then sold at fairs to raise money. At sailing events, bicycle fairs and cultural events around the world Uusi Tuuli campaigns for fair trade, environmental issues, development co-operation and what they call ‘an alternative way of life’.

How did this diverse group of volunteers end up on Estelle? It all began as a joke, says the boat’s project manager Niko Humalisto. A group of friends were discussing the plight of two charity movements called Emmaus (providing work for the homeless) and World Shops (which promotes fair trade) over a few beers one night and “people started fantasising about having our own ship that could sail all around the world transporting sustainable cargo”, says Humalisto. It turned out at the end of the evening one of the participants didn’t realise the joke and began investigating a suitable vessel for the project. The end result was the purchase of the shipwreck of Estelle in 1985.

Some 3000 people have contributed to the upkeep of Estelle over the years. After Eestaas Oy bought her, it took over ten years to transform her into a suitable seafaring ship. Humalisto says of her original state: “Basically the ship was a complete wreck. It didn’t have any masts! If we had the capital to invest in the renovation of Estelle the process would not have taken 12 years of work. People helping out weren’t professional ship constructors nor dockyard workers, they were just volunteers who had the idea of promoting solidarity exchange through a sailing cargo vessel.” Almost every material used by volunteers to rebuild her is recycled. The cargo-hold floor has been re-modelled out of one of Turku’s first skateboard ramps and the steel plates of the hull were fashioned by sympathetic dockyard workers who added them under the cover of night. By recycling, experimenting and learning as they went, a seaworthy sailing ship was born out of the over 70-year-old trawler hull. The volunteers who transformed Estelle into the ship she is today had dreams of using her to transport humanitarian aid cargo in an environmentally sustainable manner. A sailing ship was the most obvious choice for an environmentally friendly vessel. And, adds Humalisto, “They didn’t just want to transport cargo, but also the stories behind the products and encounters of different cultures.”

Her first test-drive as a sailing boat was a few hours' trip in the calm and icy Archipelago Sea in 1994. This was a highly anticipated event for the people who had been building the ship for the past ten years. For this trip sails weren't used despite the masts and rigging being ready. In May of 1995 she set off to Teijo with the aid of her sails for the first time, as well as a motor. Here she was dry-docked for a week for inspections before sailing back to Turku. That summer saw Estelle undergo a number of test-drives through the Archipelago Sea as well as to Pori and Uusikaupunki, before heading back to her homebase Turku. Since then she has handled the ocean beautifully at long distances, albeit at a slower pace then some sailing ships.

Not much is known about the ship’s initial owners and builders, but we do know that she was built in 1922 in Emden, Germany. She was used primarily to sail the Baltic Sea fishing for salmon, cod and herring. She was briefly used by Nazi Germany for sea trawling, not for any salacious military purposes, before Mikael Lindell and his brother from Finland operated her. They used Estelle for 15 years to transport gravel from Vuolahti to a construction yard in Helsinki. In 1957 she underwent an extension of eight metres to gain added cargo space. And in 1985 she was bought by Estaas Oy and made a one-way journey from Helsinki to Turku with no masts or sails. Here she remained dry-docked for over ten years while she was rebuilt. Since then, her deck has been completely rebuilt and a mast and sails added to transform her into a ship. In 1997 she was certified as a Finnish merchant vessel and at the same time was cleared as a special-purpose boat, or a training vessel. This means Uusi Tuuli can use Estelle to transport cargo and carry out its campaigning work at the same time. “It is very rare to see sailing vessels who are certified merchant vessels,” says Humalisto. “Merchant vessels have to suffer more bureaucracy and stricter demands in the maritime inspections as well as having to meet all the modern navigation and communication requirements.” Estelle must have been up to a fair standard as in 1999 she was granted an unlimited sailing area.

Estelle’s biggest volunteer mission to date was the Angola project launched in 2001 for the purpose of promoting fair trade. The boat sailed to Finnish towns spreading the word on the situation in poverty-stricken Angola and gathering donations of clothes, sewing machines and so on to deliver to the African country. “Angola is one of the richest countries in the world thanks to its diamonds, oil and other mineral deposits, however the people are among the poorest in the world. Angola has been par excellence of global process, exploiting the raw resources of the south and leaving the environmental and social costs for the local communities to pay; this exploitation by foreign companies also fueled 30 years of civil war in Angola,” says Humalisto. To help the cause Estelle sailed to Angola in 2002 to deliver a full cargo of humanitarian aid. “Estelle’s Angola project gathered wide media attention,” says Humalisto, “humanitarian aid cargo was delivered for those who needed it in the Angolan refugee camps and lots of stories and cultural knowledge was shared and exchanged. However the project was in a sense too much for our small organisation, people were exhausted and it froze our organisation for years.”

The group hasn’t given up on their charity work, however, and they now use their experience in Angola as an example to other like-minded people of the “unfair world order” that exists. The group also has strong ties to Greenpeace with the crew playing a major role in establishing the Greenpeace offices in Finland. “Many volunteers and sailors on Estelle are also active in Greenpeace,” says Humalisto. In fact Estelle was rented to Greenpeace in 2004 for its campaign to designate approximately 40 per cent of the North and Baltic seas as marine reserves – making it totally off limits to fishing, dredging, and mineral exploration. Activists from Uusi Tuli lent a hand for this campaign as well as lending their boat.

Next up for the boat is a summer tour of 12 Baltic Sea harbours to continue to promote fair trade. Also in the works is a larger cargo delivery project to South Mexico in 2011 to pick up a load of coffee from indigenous and Zapatista coffee producers. The Zapatista are a revolutionary group based in one of Mexico’s poorest areas who believe in libertarian socialism. This coffee cargo will be distributed around Europe through organisations that support the Zapapista movement. “We are gathering bicycles for the trip to Mexico to promote sustainable traffic on land as well as the sea. The ship’s hull has to go through a complete renovation before setting sail to Mexico and we are quite feverishly seeking funding for this - donations are more than welcome,” says Humalisto.

It is Estelle’s uniqueness that makes her such an interesting ship to profile. She has come a long way from her days as a fishing trawler and the less-than-glamorous task of transporting gravel for 15 years, not to mention her brief brush with the Nazis. It took ten years for volunteers to convert the shipwreck into a seaworthy vessel using wholly recycled materials and free manpower. This transformation perfectly embodies the principle behind the team who now charter Estelle: ‘Do it yourself and learn by doing’. The boat will continue to be used for charity work with the Baltic Sea harbour tour and the Zapatista coffee mission.

August 18, 2009

This major new addition to the history of Thames Barge racing focuses on the Horlock family's unrivalled success spanning over 100 years. The book combines Chubb Horlock's racing experiences with aspects of design, tactics and descriptions of the races on the Thames, Medway, Blackwater and Orwell rivers. It also includes appendices, barge index and bibliography. Produced in hardback, it is 176 pages and features over 150 illustrations, many of which are previously unpublished.

Statistics released by the Publishers Information Bureau recently recorded that advertising revenues for the last quarter are down nearly 22% on the same period last year.

As Traditional Boats & Tall Ships Magazine is a small, niche title this downturn has had a devastating effect on the advertising revenues that have been achieved so far this year. It is these monies that allow us to be able to fund and retain the quality of print, editorial and design that you have come to expect since we re-launched last year.

So in order to protect the title from the risk of closure, we have taken the decision to place the magazine on hold for the short-term future. While the title sits ‘in hibernation’ we will not be taking any new subscriptions or renewals of existing subscriptions.

This has not been an easy decision to take, but it is one that will hopefully safeguard some future for the magazine. I thank all of the subscribers in advance for their support and patience during this difficult and unfortunate time.

David Tickner

July 09, 2009

Regular TBTS reader and contributor Eric Cowell recently made us aware of the passing of a great name in sea shanties, Johnny Collins and has written the following obituary

JOHNNY COLLINS

Sail enthusiasts who love the sea shanties that are part of our island heritage will be sad to learn of the death on July 6th in Gdańsk, Poland, of Johnny Collins. He was there on a singing tour. Born in May 1938, Johnny was a London based, Norfolk born folk singer specialising in traditional maritime music`.

In 1983 Johnny with Jim Mageean, won the ‘Intervision Song Contest’ in Rostock, East Germany. In 1987 the duo were invited to perform at a sea shanty festival in Berlin commemorating the foundation of the city. Although recent health problems had caused him to restrict his activities he continued to tour world-wide. He had performed in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland and France. In the UK he appeared at the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Races and maritime festivals, including Hull, Lancaster, Bristol, Dundee, Maldon, Portsmouth, Gosport, Greenwich and Chatham. A welcome singer at many maritime venues he made guest appearances in the USA, notably at Maine Maritime Museum, Kendall Whaling Museum, Newport News and Mystic Seaport. He was also the resident shantyman at ‘Expo 88 ‘ in Brisbane Australia.

I have happy memories of his lusty leading of impromptu shanty singing sessions in informal venues such as the bar at the National Folk Song Festivals. I feel privileged to have recorded Johnny in our studios as guest singer with The Mollyhawks, a shanty group from his own county of Norfolk. Those who worked with him will long remember his great good humour, his patience and especially that powerfully rich bass-baritone voice with its Norfolk accent. Like countless others, my life has been enriched by knowing him.

Shanty enthusiasts, tall ship devotees and his many friends and fans will miss Johnny Collins but none more than his partner Joyce.

June 01, 2009

Dutch tallship the Oosterschelde has announced a new summer programme for this year that involves some beautiful voyages around the Hebrides (including St Kilda). During the voyages you would be sailing as much as possible, but there will also be time to go on land to explore the coasts, culture and animal life. As the Oosterschelde is smaller than some tall ships it benefits from being able to visit places that are not possible to be reached over land.

So this year's Tall Ships' Atlantic Challenge is now well underway. The vessels are currently racing towards Bermuda and the latest report from the organisers follows:

"All the vessels now have a little wind that is helping them on their journey towards Bermuda although the Race Committee will make a decision about cutting the race short this week, in order to ensure all vessels are in Bermuda on time.

On Spirit of Bermuda the skipper, Simon Colley, reports: “Discipline and morale remain high, despite the searing heat and repetitiveness of our recent days. All watches are collaborating on creating a new orientation manual for oncoming crew. Our current trainees have more experience sailing Spirit offshore than any past crew and their combined perspectives and insights are invaluable. They have become the perfect team for this race.”

On Tecla they are quite excited by the prospect of the race being cut short, simply because it means they can make some calculations and know what they have to do to remain in second place or even take the lead. Jet Sluik reports: “Taking the lead is not impossible now that the frontline had no wind and we at least have some wind. All hope is certainly not gone! Everybody is now so used to the movement of the ship that they can watch movies downstairs without feeling sick. Of course Pirates of the Caribbean was the first movie to be watched.”

All the pictures posted are from when the fleet was in Tenerife (both in port and at the race start).

You can see regular updates on the Races along with fleet tracking position and images or register for RSS Feeds visit www.tallshipsraces.org

May 28, 2009

The Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg sank yesterday, successfully concluding a 13-year-project to convert the decommissioned military missile-tracking ship into a new artificial reef off Key West in Florida.

Demolition experts pushed a button that ignited cutting charges strategically positioned in bilge areas below the ship’s waterline and The Vandenberg disappeared below the waterline less than two minutes later at a location approximately seven miles south of Key West in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

The water depth at the sink site is 140 feet, but the 523-foot Vandenberg is so large that its upper superstructure lies only 40 feet below the surface of the ocean. The ship is the second largest vessel in the world ever purposely sunk to become an artificial reef.

The sinking also completes the Florida Keys Shipwreck Trek, a series of intentionally sunk vessels that begins off Key Largo with the Spiegel Grove and ends with the Vandenberg. When ready, it will provide new habitat for marine life, a recreational venue for divers and fishermen and an "underwater classroom" for marine science students. Seventy percent of the $8.6 million project’s funding resources and some 75,000 man-hours were required to rid the vessel of contaminants.

The removals and additional ship cleansing were required to receive the necessary federal and state permits to sink the ship in the sanctuary without risking environmental impact to the marine ecosystem.

Project organisers say the prime attraction of the Vandenberg is its huge size and diversified structure that should appeal to divers of all skill levels. While some sections of the ship are expected to rise to within 40 feet of the surface, other areas should appeal to divers with advanced certification to dive in deep environments beneath overhead structures.

The ship first saw duty as a U.S. Army troop transport named the General Harry Taylor. It became the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg in 1963 and tracked Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space launches off Cape Canaveral. It was retired in 1983, but received its most public exposure when cast as a Russian science ship in Virus, a 1999 film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland.

Project officials say the Vandenberg reef is expected to generate $80 million in tourism-related sales during the next 10 years, and point out environmental benefits including alleviating recreational diving pressure on natural coral reefs.

The PK 15 zipper is currently available in black and white and at any length requested, but additional colours are available on special request. It is manufactured in Israel by Paskal Marine Zip Fasteners and is available through Paskal Israel, Paskal USA, Australia or Hong Kong or via one of Paskal's distributors in Europe.